


The Mask

by Greyed_Viking



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: But not extreme, Fierce Deity is an ass, If Time still had the Fierce Deity mask..., Vague Puppetering, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:33:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21600820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greyed_Viking/pseuds/Greyed_Viking
Summary: Shaking, raised the mask to his face and set it into place.It hurt.It hurt more than he ever remembered it hurting.
Kudos: 120





	The Mask

It was evening, the time right before twilight hits, where everything is still lit well, but maybe not as well as you would like. Time and Warriors sat together with Wind bouncing between them and Wild and Twilight’s group. Time looked around at his group before looking back down at his hands.

“I can’t believe I used to treat these like toys,” Time whispered, turning over the Deku Mask. “They were real souls, some of them monsters, some of them innocent people, but souls nonetheless. I played with them like they were simple tools, a means to an end. How silly of me.”

“You did what you thought was right, Time,” Warriors said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Time shrugged and began putting up the masks. Finally, he held up the last mask. The Fierce Deity mask. A shiver of power seemed to flow down Time’s arms as he stared into the eye sockets of the mask.

“What mask is that?” Wind asked. Time glanced up.

“The Fierce Deity mask. It was the mask I used to defeat Majora. It’s an old, powerful mask. I wouldn’t dare use it again, not unless I had to.”

Wind seemed pleased with this, and nodded before bounding away to bother Wild on the other side of camp. Gently rubbing a thumb over the cheekbone, Time packed the mask away in his knapsack.

“Are you finally ready to go, Old Man?” Legend asked, bored. Time glared at him but nodded curtly. The others picked up their bags and began heading out of camp. It wasn’t long until they ran into trouble.

“Go!” Sky shouted, barreling into the crowd of monsters, Master Sword gleaming in his hand. Hyrule and Legend followed behind him, swords at the ready. Quickly, they were attacked and they began to fight for their lives. Time followed after them, engaging monster after monster, swinging the Biggoron sword like it weighed nothing. But it was a never ending swarm of monsters, some that Time recognized from his Hyrule and some he didn’t. It didn’t matter though; monsters were monsters, and they had to go.

Cutting down a bokoblin, Time glanced into the fray. His heart stopped. Wild was on the ground, bleeding profusely, Twilight positioned over him, fighting defensively. Hyrule and Sky were back to back, both bleeding from several wounds, and Four as cornered by three much larger enemies. Time couldn’t see the rest of the boys and could only hope they were safe.

“No,” Time whispered, watching Four getting flinged to the side by a monster. As he turned. He watched Sky take a hit to the head and fall backwards onto Hyrule. He shouted in alarm as the monster hoard descended upon them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Legend, running across the field towards them in his Pegasus Boots, only to be knocked to the ground by a moblin. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn't be happening! They were heroes, they couldn’t just die like this!

He had to do something, and quick. Slicing a lizafol, he thought desperately. There was no way he could take on all the monsters, not alone, not without help.

Not without help…  _ That was it! _

Swinging around, he looked back to where the boys had dropped their belongings.  _ There _ . Fighting the bokoblins in front of him, he pushed towards there. He needed his bag, and by Din’s Fire, he would get it. He had to protect his boys. He would do anything,  _ anything _ , to protect them. Including this. He had to.

Finally breaking out of the fray, he dove for his bag. Kneeling down, he began frantically digging through it.  _ Not Deku, not Zora, Nayru’s Love Be Damned, where was it? _ Suddenly he touched warm, slick wood and he knew he had found it. The Fierce Deity Mask: the mask that had marked him, that had made him who he was. The mask that could win this fight and save his men. Shaking, raised the mask to his face and set it into place.

It  _ hurt _ .

It hurt more than he ever remembered it hurting.

Time screamed, a hoarse screech of pure pain. He could feel every bone in his body snap, and fuse back together within seconds. He could feel his muscles, stretching and pulling at his joints, a feeling that made him want to vomit. Screaming again, he had tears rushing down his paleing face. He could do this. He  _ had to  _ do this. He had to save his boys. Collapsing for a moment, he fell forward onto his arms. He cried out in pain once more. He had never been in this much pain. Pounding the ground with a fist, he gritted his teeth. The pain finally faded and his eyes shot open, glowing white. He felt…

“On top of the world?” A voice asked. Fierce Deity. Time nodded as he stood up. “Good. Now, I suggest we save those boys of yours,” Was the reply.

“Gladly,” Time spoke, pulling the double helix sword off his back and turned to face the battle. It had seemingly paused, monsters staring at him with beady black eyes full of terror. He smirked. Charging forward, he sliced into three bokoblins, puffs of smoke flying as he whizzed by, a blur on the battlefield.

“On your left,” Fierce Deity called, sounding bored. A lizafol. Dead. “On your right,” A moblin. Dead. Keese, dead, bokoblins, dead, dead, dead,  _ dead _ . Time felt… invincible. Like nothing could stop him. He mowed down the enemies surround Sky and Hyrule, stabbed through the ones tossing Legend around, beheaded the ones cornering Four… He annihilated half the field in minutes, the rest of the monster scrambling for a retreat. Time stopped, watching them leave, victorious.

“Oh, can’t have that, now can we?” Fierce Deity crowed. Time found himself running, killing every monster he caught up to. He was confused. The enemy retreated, he was going to let them go, but–

“Oh, you want this. You just don’t want to seem like a monster. But you are. You remember, don’t you?” Fierce Deity cackled and Time winced. He was no monster but yet… This felt so good. Killing this runaway monsters felt  _ good _ . Maybe he was. After all, what person kills a retreating enemy?

Time felt sick to his stomach as he slowed down. There were no more monsters. None, except him. 

“Time! Holy Hylia…” Time turned to see Twilight panting next to him, a look of disturbed disgust painted across his face.

“I don’t know why I didn’t stop.” Time spat out. Might as well say it.

“You didn’t stop because you because what you fear most- a monster, dear Link,” Fierce Deity’s voice rang out in Time’s head.

“No!” Time yelled, angry at the accusation.

“No? No what? Time, are you okay? How about you take that mask off?” Twilight asked.

Whipping around, Time raised his sword, placing it between him and Twilight. Twilight took a few steps back, hands raised.

“Hey, hey, no need for that,” Twilight said carefully, eyeing the bloody double helix sword. It looked sharper than any other blade Twilight had ever seen, and he definitely didn’t want to find out if that was true.

“You are not taking this away from me,” Time found himself saying. Twilight glanced up at him, worry etched into his face. Time growled. Twilight pulled out his sword, pulling it in front of him defensively.

“Time, I really don’t want to fight you,” Twilight warned. Time growled again and charged at Twilight. Jumping out of the way, Twilight swung his sword, clanging into Time’s. Time tightened his grip. He would  _ not _ lose this feeling, he hadn’t felt this good in  _ years _ . He refused to lose it now. As he continued to viciously fight Twilight, Fierce Deity whispered in Time’s ear.

“And this, dear Link, is why you are a monster. You don’t stop, and won’t stop, until all that oppose you are dead. It was I who kept that Skull Child alive, not you. You wanted him dead for dragging you into another journey. For causing Tatl harm, for hurting Tael. For endangering Epona, for not being Navi, for causing you to relive three days, over and  _ over _ and  _ over again _ ,” Fierce Deity yelled. Twilight whimpered, calling out for help. Time could barely hear him over the blood pumping in his ears. He wasn’t in control, was he? This wasn’t what he wanted. No, this wasn’t what he wanted at all.

“Oh, but this  _ is _ what you want. You want to be unchallenged, unstoppable. Untouchable. You want to be the one they turn to. You are the oldest and most experienced. You are almost as old as me, with the amount of times you played with the flow of time. Do they know? Do they know what you’ve done to yourself? Do you even recognize yourself when you see your reflection? Do you, Link?” Closing his eyes, Time gritted his teeth.

When he opened his eyes, there were new targets. A brown haired boy in green. A short blond boy with a multicolor tunic. A dirty blond man with a blue and silver sword. Didn’t matter, Time thought. They would be ended like any other enemy.

The man with the blue and silver sword struck first, darting into Time’s blind spot and cutting at the straps to his plate armor. Grunting, Time swung his sword, knocking him down. The small boy jumped at him, jabbing towards him with his small sword. Time closed his eyes, laughing heartily, but it cost him. While he was laughing, a wolf had appeared and jumped for his sword hand, biting in. Surprised, Time dropped his sword, swatting at the wolf who bit harder, sorrow filling its eyes.

“Gah!” Time choked out, surprised yet again when someone jumped on his back, wrapping their arms around his throat. Stunned and unsure of what to do, Time froze.

“No!” Screamed Fierce Deity. “Move, Link, move, Goddess damn it!” Time didn’t move, fighting against Fierce Deity’s wishes. He was done. He was tired and this didn’t seem right anymore.

The person on Time’s back dug their nails into his jawline, pulling at the skin. Time howled with pain and the mask began pulling away from his face. The wolf let go of his hand and Time began helping the man on his back pull the mask away.

“Link, no! You’ll never feel this good again!” Fierce Deity screeched. 

“No,  _ you’ll _ never feel this good again, Fierce Deity!” And with that, the mask popped off of Time’s face. Screaming again, Time dropped to the ground as his body morphed back to its original form. Tears hit the ground, as Time collected himself. Looking up, he said two words.

“I’m sorry,” And with that, he fell onto his side, out cold.

“Time!” Sky, Four, Twilight, and Hyrule yelled. Checking his pulse and breathing, Sky determined he was simply unconscious, and would more than likely be fine when he awoke. The four boys dragged him back to their makeshift camp and waited. They weren’t waiting too long before Time came to.

“Urgh,” Time groaned, placing a hand over his eyes.

“Time!” Wind shouted. The boys collected around Time as he slowly became more conscious. Soon, he was sitting up and answering the boys various questions.

“What was that? What were you thinking?” Sky demanded. Time looked down sheepishly, muttering.

“What was that?” Sky asked, tone still demanding.

“I don’t… don’t completely know. I…” Time paused, looking away from Sky’s hard eyes. “I was just trying to help. You were all in trouble so I did the only thing I knew to do. It just didn’t end the way I thought it would.”

“Oh? Fighting us wasn’t on the agenda? Could have surprised us!” Sky spat. Time winced and looked down again. Sky’s face softened, and he placed a hand on Time’s shoulder.

“I’m just… We could have hurt each other. Actually, we did hurt you,” Sky said regretfully. Time glanced over as his hand where Twilight had bit it. It was bloody, but it didn’t really hurt unless he moved it.

“I have a question,” Twilight stated. Time looked up at him and he sighed.

“Were you… Were you hearing voices? You were talking to yourself, but almost like you were arguing with someone else,” It was Time’s turn to sigh.

“The Fierce Deity… Was talking to me. And I didn’t like what he said, but some of it was right.”

“Like what?” Wind asked, harmlessly, but Time flinched.

“He called me a monster, and said that I wouldn’t be able to recognize my reflection anymore,” Time murmured. “He wasn’t totally wrong.”

At these words, Wind launched himself into Time’s arms and hugged him. It seemed to break the tension and soon everyone was hugging Time, even if it was just an arm thrown around his shoulder.

“I think… I think I’m going to break the mask, so I’m not tempted again,” Time said. The boys looked at each other and looked at Time.

“Are you sure you want to do that, Time?” Hyrule asked. Time nodded. Sky handed over the mask and they all waited on baited breath as Time lifted the mask.

“You have no more control over me. You have changed my life, maybe for the better, maybe for the worst. But you will never use me as your puppet again,” And with that, Time slammed the mask over his knee, breaking it. Wild picked up the pieces and threw them into the fire. They sat together and watched the pieces turn to ash. The boys decided to leave Time alone for a while.

“Time? I just thought maybe you should know that, um… Well, just look,” Warriors said later, shoving a mirror into Time’s hands. Confused, Time looked down into the mirror.

“Oh,” He said quietly. His hair was partially silver, and he had the complete marking of the Fierce Deity mask covering his face. He handed the mirror back to Warriors and nodded slowly. Life was going to be different now.

Then it hit him. He groaned loudly, attracting the attention of the whole camp.

“Malon is going to _ kill _ me,”


End file.
